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Dionysus (Daily Lush Magazine)

MAYBE IT’S TIME TO GIVE UP ON THE NEW GODS. They don’t seem to be doing us much good anyway — or, at least, their followers famously like to stir up trouble. We can thank contemporary religions for everything from war in the Middle East to riots in India. If adherents to new religions aren’t busily attempting to overthrow science, they seem to take a peculiar delight in persecuting anyone who does not share their particular viewpoints. As far as we at Daily Lush are concerned, if you’re going to believe one collection of mythological tales, it seems mighty petty to begrudge someone for entertaining another set. But, then, we argue that if you’re going to believe nonsense, you might as well choose entertaining nonsense.

So we give you Dionysus. He’s an older god, certainly, but that gives him a few advantages. First of all, he was good enough for both the Greeks and the Romans, which suits us, as we have a taste for the classics. After all, we can thank these paragons of antiquity for such terrific innovations as democracy, rhetoric, and the flush toilet, the latter of which is the ideal environment for reading about both democracy and rhetoric. Additionally, it has been quite a while since Dionysus had any real following, so, whatever his faults, at least he hasn’t inspired any recent religious wars — although he continues to inspire one of history’s greatest annual parties; more on that later. (more..)